Oh don't worry. Whales don't eat clownfish, they eat krill.

On Of The Best NaNoWriMo Pep Talks To Date

It’s the last week of November and I’ve only got a little bit left to go in my novel before I can validate and get that purple bar. One of the things that I always look forward to while doing NaNoWriMo is always the pep talks given my notable authors who are also doing NaNoWriMo with us plebeians.

One of the best pep talks that I’ve read was in Week Three, by Tamora Pierce.

Right now a lot of you are doing the same thing I’m doing, staring at this piece of screen in order to put off actually writing, because at this moment in time the writing is decidedly starting to suck. You are stuck; worse, you’re bored. You’re thinking you were bounced repeatedly on your head when you were small and easy to bounce. You’re thinking you have no talent.

She nailed in on the head, exactly what I was feeling that week. I had just crossed the halfway mark and into the thirty thousands. The end of the novel felt so near and yet, so very far. The story line was going no where and the characters were just rambling and rambling without any clear topic. They sound just like me when I’m tired.

Then came the tips.

These times are a colossal pain, there is no denying it. In desperation, I will time my breaks. Twenty minutes to read, and I’m back to the desk, to turn out a page, or two. Another twenty minutes break, then back for that page or two. Sooner or later my characters will get out of the wagon or off the ship, and they’ll start doing things again.

Just keep after it. Think of how proud of yourselves you’ll be once you have that novel-length manuscript in your hand! There is nothing like it, nothing like knowing you have finished something of that length.

I managed to get over that hump and now, even though I’m not really on track, but I’m getting to the end. It hasn’t been an easy ride but it’s been worth it.